Roda Mushkat on Authoritarian International Law: An Unfinished Research Odyssey (CICLR)

"Authoritarian International Law: An Unfinished Research Odyssey"
Roda Mushkat
Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review (Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 51-118)
Published online: 2024

Abstract: The concept-rich international legal space has expanded in the past few years by incorporating the notion that there is a distinct form of international law possessing authoritarian traits. This notion stands in contrast with the time-honored mainstream variant which is assumed to have liberal-democratic roots and dispositions. A product of the current decade, authoritarian international law has nevertheless left a palpable mark on international legal theory and is believed to have materially reshaped the international legal landscape. The primary aim of this Article is to summarize the achievements made in analyzing the dimensions of this new concept and its considerable practical implications, with a view to suggesting some additional lines of inquiry.

Roda Mushkat on Radical Overall of Hong Kong’s Governance Regime: Likely Implications for Prosperity and Stability (Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law)

"Radical Overall of Hong Kong’s Governance Regime: Likely Implications for Prosperity and Stability"

Roda Mushkat

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law 

Volume 13, Issue 1

Published in 2023

Abstract: Constitutional evolution is normally a steady process, with the prevailing equilibrium seldom punctuated. Sharp reversals periodically occur but they are uncommon, usually confined to low-income and lower middle-income countries. The introduction of a draconian national security law and its heavy-handed enforcement in the affluent Hong Kong capitalist enclave, serving as one of the world economy’s pivotal global metropolises, thus amounts to a historically unprecedented emasculation of a sound and well-thought-out governance architecture. The abrupt unraveling of a semi-democratic infrastructure, pulverizing of key components of a time-honored rule-of-law system, and erosion of international legal personality has been breathtaking and profoundly disconcerting. Yet, the ramifications of this dramatic turn of events have so far been narrowly examined, with the impact on the twin strategic goals of prosperity and socio-political stability largely overlooked. This is an issue that deeply concerns Hong Kong’s many stakeholders, and insights derived from the law-and-economics and law-and-politics literature suggest that the agonizing revamp of the governance regime bodes ill for the territory and, by extension, those engaged with it economically and otherwise.

Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat on Reconfiguring the Linkage Between Corruption and Economic Development in China: Legitimate Concerns Not Alleviated (Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal)

"Reconfiguring the Linkage Between Corruption and Economic Development in China: Legitimate Concerns Not Alleviated"

Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat
Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, Issue 32, pp. 75-111
Published in 2022

Abstract: Grappling with the intricacies of corrupt practices in the postpositivist age has become an increasingly challenging proposition. Multiple perspectives, normative as well as positivist, have been brought to bear on this phenomenon that was once thought to be straightforward. Socio-legal scholars inspired by the law-and economics paradigm have largely adhered to the positivist blueprint but have been divided between those who regard corruption as unequivocally inimical to the health of the economy (“sanders”) and those who view it as a force selectively fueling economic dynamism (“greasers”). The reform-era Chinese hybrid economy has emerged as the laboratory where these conflicting ideas vie for scientific superiority. Some pathbreaking research has been undertaken, mostly leaning toward the “optimistic” side. This Article shows that it has fallen short of significantly enhancing that functionally sanguine position and that the weight of evidence continues to support the stance espoused by “negatively” inclined scholars.

Roda Mushkat on The Economic Fallout from Curtailing Judicial Independence: Why Tampering With Judicial Independence is an Economically Costly Strategy, in Israel and Elsewhere (Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional)

"The Economic Fallout from Curtailing Judicial Independence:
Why Tampering With Judicial Independence is an Economically Costly Strategy,
in Israel and Elsewhere"
Roda Mushkat
Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional
Published on 13 February 2023

Introduction: A new Israeli right-of-center government, with an ideological make-up unprecedented in the country’s history, came to power in late 2022 determined to radically reshape policies across a broad political spectrum. One of its principal targets is Israel’s Supreme Court, whose wings it seeks to clip by overhauling the current judicial selection procedures and the power the court supposedly exercises to roll back the government’s diverse and multilevel initiatives.

Roda Mushkat on China, Hong Kong, and International Law: Rethinking Path Dependence (MSU Int'l L Rev)

"China, Hong Kong, and International Law: Rethinking Path Dependence"

Roda Mushkat
Michigan State University International Law Review, 

Volume 30, Issue 3, pp. 443-503
Published in 2022

Abstract: International governance regimes, such as that underpinned by the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, feature prominently in the literature on international law and international relations. The efforts of scholars operating at the intersection of these two academic disciplines, however, are heavily geared toward creating and sustaining the “right” entities possessing these structural attributes with scant attention accorded to their demise. The unraveling of the Hong Kong “one country-two systems” governance regime, embodying the vision of the Chinese and British institutional architects who devised it, in the wake of Beijing’s recent imposition of a heavy-handed national security law on a capitalist enclave embedded in a common law setting featuring political checks-and-balances, offers an opportunity to methodically examine the intricacies of path dissolution/ governance regime demise, as distinct from path dependence. The results suggest that the analytical building blocks for exploring the subject do exist, but that the theoretical foundation on which they rest needs to be expanded and that they should be productively synthesized within a coherent multivariable framework.

Roda Mushkat on China and the Elusive Search for a Viable Governance Regime in the Era of Coronavirus (Eur J of Comp L and Gov)

"From China’s “Political Meritocracy” to “Just Hierarchy”: the Elusive Search for a Viable Post-Democratic Governance Regime in the Era of Coronavirus"
Roda Mushkat
European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance
Published online on 26 May 2021

Abstract: Students of comparative constitutional design grapple with myriad complex normative and empirical issues. Prominent among them is the relative effectiveness of different governance regimes. Concerns stemming from the perceived malfunctioning of modern democracies have intensified efforts to diagnose and rectify the supposedly proliferating ills. The seemingly solid post-1978 Chinese record of steadily managing intricate societal challenges has highlighted the possible advantages of the country’s tightly controlled top-down institutional apparatus and its potential value as a model worth broadly exploring and even embracing on a meaningful scale. This view, authoritatively and vigorously articulated by an influential and prolific political philosopher and his academic associates, has evolved to a point whereby the Chinese constitutional order and contemporary experience are portrayed as being capable of fruitfully supplanting democratic structures or, alternatively, productively revitalising them. Yet, on the whole, this remains a controversial politico-legal proposition, conceptually problematic and lacking sufficient factual support.

Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat on the Challenge of COVID-19 and the World Health Organization’s Response: The Principal-Agent Model Revisited (American University International Law Review)

"The Challenge of COVID-19 and the World Health Organization’s Response: The Principal-Agent Model Revisited"

Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat
American University International Law Review, Vol 36, Issue 3

Published in 2021

Overview: Despite post-Second World War aspirations to the contrary, the State-dominated Westphalian system remains the key ingredient of the global institutional architecture. Nevertheless, non-State entities have entered en masse the space accorded to them by the “gatekeepers” and have been able to exert some impact on policy outcomes across and within national borders. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, the most significant actors among the non-State players have been international organizations. A proper grasp of their relationship with their State “masters” is essential for students of international law and politics.  

      Agency theory has been invoked for this purpose and has proved to be a source of valuable conceptual and practical insights. The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) underwhelming performance when confronted with an epidemic/pandemic of enormous magnitude and severity, however, suggests that there is considerable scope for placing the principal-agent model in a much broader context and examining it from an unconventional angle.

Roda Mushkat on China's Territorial Disputes: The Ongoing Quest for a Viable Explanatory Framework (Willamette J Int'l L & Dis Resl'n)

"China's Territorial Disputes: The Ongoing Quest for a Viable Explanatory Framework"

Roda Mushkat 

27 Willamette J Int'l L & Dispute Resolution 103-168

Published in 2020 

Abstract: Chinese post-revolutionary history, including the four decade-long reform era, has entailed an array of twists and turns with far-reaching implications for the Asia-Pacific region and world order. Numerous and intense border conflicts have been an integral part of this intricate dynamic. They have attracted a fair amount of, albeit arguably insufficient, attention on the part of international legal scholars and social scientists. The former have exhibited notable breadth and the latter commendable depth in addressing the subject. The analytical shortcomings manifesting themselves, however, have not been rectified. Moreover, the quality of output on the international law side of the divide has deteriorated alter 2010 and social scientists have failed to maintain impetus beyond that point in the cycle. Consequently, the marked discontinuities, a conceptually intriguing pattern, between the pre-2010 phase and the past decade have not been adequately delineated and theoretically exploited. The experience suggests that the challenges which manifold boundary conflicts pose, in this area and elsewhere, call for closer interdisciplinary collaboration and greater paradigmatic versatility.

Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat on Combatting Corruption in the “Era of Xi Jinping”: A Law and Economics Perspective (Hastings Int'l & Comp L Rev)

"Combatting Corruption in the “Era of Xi Jinping”: A Law and Economics Perspective"
Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat
Hastings International and Comparative Law Review
2019, Volume 43, No. 2

Abstract: Pervasive graft, widely observed throughout Chinese history but deprived of proper outlets and suppressed in the years following the Communist Revolution, resurfaced on massive scale when partial marketization of the economy was embraced in 1978 and beyond. The authorities had endeavored to alleviate the problem, but in an uneven and less than determined fashion. The battle against corruption has greatly intensified after Xi Jinping ascended to power in 2012. The multiyear antigraft campaign that has unfolded has been carried out in an iron-fisted and relentless fashion. It has yielded some tangible benefits, yet the negative side of the ledger is heavily loaded. Absent broad-based institutional reengineering, the ambitious and costly program’s long-term future may not be assured.

Roda Mushkat on Economics and International Law: Closer Alignment through Greater Analytical Diversity? (Chinese (Taiwan) Ybk Int'l L & Aff)

"Economics and International Law: Closer Alignment through Greater Analytical Diversity?"

Roda Mushkat

Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs, 2018 Issue 36,  pp. 1-55 

Abstract: The scope of International legal inquiry has expanded considerably in recent years, in terms of the analytical perspectives brought to bear on the issues addressed, rather than merely their nature and intricacy. Traditional-style approaches continue to feature prominently in the cognitive toolkit relied upon to frame and dissect problems, but no longer exclusively and in an unadulterated form. Novel conceptual insights have been incorporated from the social sciences, injecting a multidisciplinary, and even interdisciplinary, element into the system. Economics has increasingly come to the fore in this context, both directly and indirectly, initially in relation to State compliance with international law and latterly on a wider basis. The narrowly focused, neoclassical paradigm featuring an assiduous, omniscient, and self-centered agent—homo economicus—has given way to more nuanced and multifaceted schemes but, as demonstrated in this article, the process of shrinking gaps in the explanatory façade and weaving together the disparate interpretative threads may have considerably further to go. The evolution of economically inspired international legal theory is traced here with a view to showing how post-neoclassical contributions, supported with empirical illustrations based on Eastern realities, persistently overlooked in the Western-dominated academic literature, might fruitfully enrich this body of knowledge and align it more tightly with behavioral patterns observed across different geographies throughout modern history.

Roda Mushkat on the Case Study Method in International Legal Research (J Juridical Science)

"The case for the case study method in international legal research"
Roda Mushkat

Journal for Juridical Science
2017, Volume 42, Issue 2, pp. 143-182

Abstract: The exploration of international law has gradually but perceptibly evolved into an increasingly multifaceted enterprise. A notable development, albeit not yet on a large-scale, has been the adoption of empirical approaches relied upon in the Social Sciences for purposes of description, explanation and evaluation. A genuinely rich body of theoretical insights has consequently taken shape, providing a more robust foundation than previously available for pursuing knowledge and engaging in policy action. Much of the information generated has been obtained via the examination, often elaborate in nature, of specific cases. However, the technical underpinnings of this scientific endeavour leave something to be desired, as illustrated by a juxtaposition of methodological requirements with prevailing practices and offering concrete examples of greater technical rigour observed in neighbouring disciplines.

New Publications by Roda Mushkat

"Exploring International Environmental Governance Regimes: The Asian Way"
Roda Mushkat
Wisconsin International Law Journal
2017, vol. 34, pp. 585-667

Abstract: Ecological degradation and strategies to combat it have loomed increasingly large on the socio-legal research agenda for the past three decades or so. The scholarly attention they have garnered has spawned a rich literature on multi-level environmental governance, including on an international, and even global, scale. Social scientists have spearheaded the quest for gaining a deeper insight into the phenomenon, but students of law have also been active participants in the process of knowledge accumulation. Asian inputs have been relatively modest and have been produced comparatively late in the long journey of scientific, or quasi-scientific, discovery, yet they enhance the understanding of the issues broadly addressed, even if at times in a critical fashion, despite their selective focus and the paucity of constructively articulated suggestions for remedial action.

"The Political Economy of Constitutional Incrementalism in Hong Kong"

Roda Mushkat & Miron Mushkat 

Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review

2016, vol. 9, pp. 1-46 

Abstract: A highly developed, large, knowledge-rich, and mostly autonomous territory, acting as a global economic ‘matchmaker’ with residents who do not hesitate to openly express their voice through multiple channels, should ideally be endowed with institutional capital commensurate with its structural and functional attributes. That has not been the pattern observed in Hong Kong, whose political system has been reconfigured slowly and selectively, in a manner lacking a clear sense of purpose and coherence. The upshot is a governance regime that is out of tune with prevailing realities. Without resorting to ‘shock therapy’ and causing reverberations across the border, a version of deliberative democracy conducive to the pursuit of prosperity and stability may productively be embraced.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Part 2 of 2017)

Hong Kong Law Journal

Vol. 47, Part 2 of 2017

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Table of Contents

Articles
A Re-evaluation of “Incarceration Strategy” by Hong Kong Courts: The Overuse of Incarceration in Sentencing Juvenile Drug Offenders Gordon Chung	323
The Doctrinal and Normative Vacuity of Hong Kong’s Joint Enterprise Doctrine Dennis J Baker	349
A Critical Analysis of the Hong Kong Stamp Duty Implications of Corporate Amalgamations and the Repurchase by a Company of Its Own Shares Stefano Mariani	399
Challenging the “Majority Support” Argument on not Introducing Anti-discrimination Legislation on the Ground of Sexual Orientation in Hong Kong Suen Yiu Tung	421
The Success and Failure of Online Dispute Resolution Wei Gao	445
Interpreting Article 104: The Way, the How, the Timing Devin Lin, Valentin Günther and Mathias Honer	475
Lecture
Constitutional Dialogue and the Rule of Law Hon Justice Matthew Palmer	505
China Law
The Gap between Law and Practice: An Empirical Study on China’s High Pretrial Detention Rate Xifen Lin, Zihui Gu and Xi Lin	525
International Jurisdiction under the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: Implications for China Huang Zhang	555
Examining Legislation in China’s Special Economic Zones: Framework, Practice and Prospects Yang Feng	585
Law and Justice in Evening Rain Alison W Conner	615
Review Articles
Lord Sumption and the Limits of the Law Hon Sir Anthony Mason	633
China’s Multi-layered Attitude towards State Sovereignty: Theory, Practice and Broad Implications Roda Mushkat	659
Book Reviews
Hong Kong Competition Law Carter Chim	689
The Commercial Appropriation of Fame: A Cultural Analysis of the Right of Publicity and Passing Off Marco Wan	693

Click here to read the abstracts of each article.  Hong Kong Law Journal is published by Sweet & Maxwell.  Full text is available on Westlaw.

Roda Mushkat on Counterfactual Reasoning and International Law Methodology (German LJ)

"Counterfactual Reasoning: An Effective Component of the International Law Methodological Armor? 

Roda Mushkat

German Law Journal

2017, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 59-97

Abstract: The exploration of international legal patterns is an increasingly multifaceted enterprise. As such, it inevitably entails recourse to a progressively broader array of analytical instruments designed to place the process on a firmer scientific, or quasi-scientific, foundation. This expanding set consists predominantly, albeit not exclusively, of qualitative techniques relied upon in seeking generalizations about complex realities that are shrouded in uncertainty. The cluster of tools employed or deemed potentially usable includes, although tentatively, counterfactual thinking. The latter may be regarded as a research vehicle of “last resort,” underpinned by a soft substructure, but it may facilitate the quest for better grasp of phenomena observed in the international law domain and more effective action in that realm.  Click here to download the full article.

Roda Mushkat on Greater China as Fertile Ground for Building and Testing International Legal Theory (new article)

"Great China Constitutes Fertile Ground for 'Building' and 'Testing' Positive International Legal Theory"

Roda Mushkat

UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs

2016, Vol. 26, pp 354-390

Abstract: Behavioral analysis of international law has neither moved beyond the exploratory stage nor yielded conclusive results. There have been few meaningful attempts to broaden and synthesize conceptual observations rooted in different analytical perspectives and expand the scope of empirical inquiry by juxtaposing hypotheses with data in non-Western geographic and historical contexts. On a modest scale, but productively so in some key respects, the Greater China setting is the exception to the rule by virtue of serving as an emerging platform for a methodical dissection of an array of behaviorally oriented theoretical schemes. It is worthwhile to highlight the contribution to knowledge made by scholars who have ventured into this challenging intellectual domain and the task that lies ahead. 

Roda Mushkat's Review Essay of ASEAN as an Actor in International Fora (Melbourne JIL)

"'Loose' Regionalism and Global Governance: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Factor"
Roda Mushkat
Melbourne Journal of International Law
2016, Vol. 17, Issue 1

Abstract: The international regulatory structure is heavily skewed in favour of a handful of industrialised countries operating as a ‘club’. This undermines its efficiency and legitimacy. An in-depth and sophisticated study, part of a large-scale and multidisciplinary research initiative by the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore, convincingly and elegantly demonstrates that insufficiently cohesive groupings such as ASEAN lack the will and capacity to ameliorate the situation. However, because of the narrow theoretical path trodden by the authors, the picture that emerges is incomplete and needs to be augmented with insights derived from complementary paradigmatic sources.  Click here to download the essay.

Roda Mushkat Reviews Ray Yep's Book, Negotiating Autonomy in Greater China (HKLJ)

"The Politico-Economic Context of Special Regional Autonomy: International and Constitutional Law Meets the Hong Kong Predicament"
Roda Mushkat
Hong Kong Law Journal
2016, Vol. 46, Part 1, pp. 287-306

Abstract: However elastic the interpretation resorted to, the gap between norms embodied in legal instruments, international and domestic, and multi-level behavioural patterns crystallised in the course of their implementation may be sizeable. The potential for this divergence and the factors responsible for it have not received adequate theoretical attention in the literature, including regional autonomy, especially in the challenging and delicate Hong Kong environment. The book under review amounts to a possible quantum leap in this regard because of the authors’ willingness to cross the boundaries between formal and informal inquiry, engage researchers from several disciplines, conceptualise the problem in broad and complex terms, not to be rigidly constrained by static logic and embrace dynamic evolution as an inescapable reality. Some questions inevitably remain unanswered, but a solid foundation for a less reductionist and more fruitful line of academic investigation has been laid.

New Scholarship by Professor Roda Mushkat

"Reconfiguring China’s Environmental Governance Regime: A Highly Complicated and Decidedly Uneven Journey"

Roda Mushkat

Journal of International and Comparative Law

Vol. 2, 2015, pp 29-59 

Abstract: In terms of its size, the Chinese economy has climbed to the top layer of the global pyramid and is currently positioned just behind its American counterpart, which it is commonly expected to overtake by the end of the present decade. This achievement is the product of a relentless drive forward spanning over three decades. It has not been a smooth ride in all respects because, inter alia, the “economic miracle” has been enormously costly from an ecological perspective. Wide-ranging 2014 adjustments to the Environmental Protection Law seek to remedy this situation. They constitute a necessary but — as matters stand, their unmistakable significance notwithstanding — not a sufficient condition for fully realising the goal of ecological modernisation, which requires broader and deeper institutional reconstruction.

"Killing the Proverbial Two Birds with One Stone: New Ways to Expand the Comparative Law Methodological Repertoire and Enhance the Effectiveness of Inter-jurisdictional Environmental Governance Regimes" 

Roda Mushkat

Trade, Law & Development

Vol. 6, 2014, pp 229-287

Abstract: Comparative legal analysis, which was once deemed to be an esoteric and peripheral academic and professional activity, has significantly grown in scope and sophistication. However, its progress has not manifested itself equally across the board. Comparative law still lacks a solid methodological foundation and does not systematically address this gap by borrowing appropriate tools from other disciplines. There is no dearth of predominantly qualitative social science techniques that are suitable for the task. Some are more robust than others but, as the dissection of the Southern China governance regime for combating transboundary pollution illustrates, recourse to even the most rudimentary ones may yield valuable insights.

"The Intricacies of Implementing International Law: A Juxtaposition of Theories with the Actualities of the Sino-British Joint Declaration Regarding the Future of Hong Kong" 

Roda Mushkat

Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs

Vol. 31 (2014), 2015, pp 1-65

Abstract: International legal scholarship has developed into a multidimensional enterprise, possessing firm analytical underpinnings, as well as descriptive and evaluative ones. The conceptual element has loomed increasingly large on the research agenda in the past five decades or so. Several new theoretical constructs have emerged and have been brought to bear on a wide-range of relevant behavioral phenomena. Be that as it may, this has been an unbalanced process. The paradigms that have crystallized and have gained currency have not been combined in a genuinely synergistic and flexible fashion. The implementation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in a complex and rapidly evolving setting, arguably suggests that this is a notable chink in the analytical chain and that a more broad-based, inclusive, and eclectic approach is called for.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal Published (Vol 45, Part 1 of 2015)

ANALYSIS
Public Entertainment and the Interpretive Dilemma in T v Commissioner of Police Po Jen Yap	1
Enforcing Contracts for the Benefit of Third Parties: Recent Reform of the Doctrine of Privity Lee Mason	13
Lecture
Vicarious Liability on the Move Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers	29
ARTICLES
Relevant Lies Janice Brabyn	45
Nullity or Merely Lost Priority? The Effect of Failure to Register a Document Concerning Land Malcolm Merry	87
Taking Transgender Rights Seriously: A Rights-Based Model of Gender Recognition in Hong Kong Kai Yeung Wong	109
Interests of Youth Suspects are at Risk: Implementing the Right to the Presence of Parent or Guardian and the Right to Legal Assistance at the Police Stations in the Case of Youth Suspects in Hong KongShum Ka Ching, Kelly	127
REVIEW ARTICLE
A New Turning Point in the Study of International Legal Compliance, in China and Elsewhere Roda Mushkat	157
Focus: Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement
Introduction Brian Christopher Jones	189
Confrontational Contestation and Democratic Compromise: The Sunflower Movement and its AftermathBrian Christopher Jones and Yen Tu Su	193
Searching for Constitutional Authority in the Sunflower Movement Chia Ming Chen	211
Policing an Occupied Legislature: Symbolic Struggle over the Police Image in Taiwan’s Sunflower Movemen Jeffrey T Martin	229
Connecting Gender and Trade: Gender Framing in the Anti-Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement Movement Hsiaowei Kuan	249
Dance with the Dragon: Closer Economic Integration with China and Deteriorating Democracy and Rule of Law in Taiwan and Hong Kong? Chien Huei Wu	275
Peaceful but “Illegal” Assemblies? – Comparisons between Taiwan’s Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Wen Chen Chang	295
Marching Towards Civic Constitutionalism with Sunflowers Jiunn rong Yeh	315
CHINA LAW
Legal Pluralism, Institutionalism and Judicial Recognition of Hong Kong–China Cross-Border Insolvency Judgments Emily Lee	331
Declining Jurisdiction by Forum Non Conveniens in Chinese Courts Zheng Sophia Tang	351
BOOK REVIEWS
Hong Kong Media Law: A Guide for Journalists and Media Professionals: Expanded Second Edition, Doreen Weisenhaus, with contributions by Rick Glofcheski and Yan Mei Ning Danny Gitting	373

Recent Publications by Roda Mushkat

"Political Economy of Regulating Competition in a Challenged Global Metropolis: The Hong Kong Blueprint"
Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat
North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation

Vol. 40, Issue 22, Winter 2015, pp 293-354

Introduction (excerpt): The original East Asia developmental states have now matured and have joined the ranks of industrial countries.46 Interest appears to have shifted to the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and their successors.47 This group does not constitute a homogeneous category, which is a disadvantage from a conceptual and policy perspective. Nevertheless, certain common features may be discerned. The countries that are currently attracting attention had long been at the interventionist end of the strategic continuum, but are presently liberalizing, albeit in a controlled fashion.48 They are also almost invariably large. An inference may be drawn that an institutional cocktail, featuring some optimal blend of spontaneous bottom-up and thoughtful top-down elements, may provide the ideal policy formula for sustaining a healthy economic expansion, and that size too greatly matters in this respect. 

     Without necessarily challenging the broad thrust of that argument, it is appropriate to note that it does not properly reflect the diversity of economic experience. Small countries, frequently less interventionist and more open than their large counterparts, often consistently outpace the titans. 49 Hong Kong, a former British colony and, since 1997, a special administrative region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is a case in point. Despite its stellar economic record and distinct institutional features, it occupies a rather modest place in the literature on economic development and growth (the equally vibrant yet differently structured city-state of Singapore is also marginalized).50 The purpose of this paper is to put Hong Kong’s economic architecture back in the spotlight by describing and assessing its regulation of competition, a process that has recently culminated in the introduction of legislation to address the issue. However, the territory’s relevant economic and political characteristics must be outlined first. 

     Another preliminary step taken is an evaluation of Hong Kong’s overall regulatory regime. Specific measures taken to correct market failure need to be placed in a broad economic and political context because such contexts are key determinants of the particular nature of the measures, although this is not a one-way relationship. However, such mechanisms are often best understood as a component of a wider regulatory system, which may be tightly or loosely integrated, but which is seldom devoid of any internal coherence. Indeed, the conclusion drawn here is that the effectiveness of the emerging framework for regulating competition in Hong Kong must be judged in light of its fit with the economic, political, and overall micro-level governance regime in which it is embedded.... Click here to download the full article.  

"A New Turning Point in the Study of International Legal Compliance, in China and Elsewhere"
Hong Kong Law Journal
Vol. 45, Part 1 of 2015, pp 157-188

Abstract:Scholarly exploration of rule conformity in the global arena is a fast-growing and increasingly sophisticated enterprise which lies at the epicentre of positive international legal theory, a relatively young but burgeoning field of scientific inquiry, with a salient explanatory dimension and a distinct multidisciplinary, perhaps even interdisciplinary, orientation. Notwithstanding the scope, diversity and progress observed in this analytical domain, it is not devoid of flaws and gaps. Periodically, research is produced that shifts the whole edifice to a markedly higher plateau. The book under review arguably falls into this category by virtue of making a number of significant contributions to knowledge, the most notable being the author’s genuine and largely successful effort to combine and integrate insights derived from seemingly competing, but in fact often complementary, schools of thought.

     Professor Mushkat is Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Law and also currently Professor of International Law, Hopkins-Nanjing Centre, Paul H. Nitze School ofAdvanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Nanjing, China.  Some of her recent publications are listed below:

• Roda Mushkat, 'Conceptions of Sovereignty and Identity Economics: A Chinese-Based Exploration' (2014) 4 International Journal of Public Law and Policy 245-278
• Roda Mushkat, 'Crucial Issues and Divergent Pathways in Empirical International Legal Research - Pivotal Questions Stemming from the Complexities of the Delicate Hong Kong-China Relationship' (2014) 44 Hong Kong Law Journal 231-246
• Roda Mushkat, 'Constructivist Constructions of International Environmental Governance Regimes - The Southeast Asia Context' (2014) 15 Melbourne Journal of International Law 252-270
• Roda Mushkat, 'The Anatomy of China's Human Rights Regime: A Behaviorally-Underpinned Analytical and Evaluative Account' (2014) 8 Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law 131-185 (2014) 
• Roda Mushkat, 'Assessing a Key Facet of the Rule of Law in Post-1997 Hong Kong' (2014) 2 Journal of International and Comparative Law 313-326